We have a stunning doer upper to care for. Any tips?

[LemonSwan]

Hi All,

Our offer was accepted on the house of our dreams. We have to care for this beauty of a house and renovate it to its former glory.

Think sash windows, double fronted edwardian style, beautiful materials and original features.

We need new central heating, new wiring, window renovations, new lime plaster etc.

Any advice welcome as we prepare to start this journey?

Already realised I needed to have the sash man booked a year ago!
Anything else we need to know?

Lots of great advice already.
I agree about taking your time to make decisions and trying to avoid the 'wanker tax', it's a thing. Also yes to bedrooms/bathrooms first as this makes the other work much more bearable.
I also agree about getting large, thick/lined curtains as these make a big difference.
Wondering if anyone can suggest any good ebay curtain sellers as I need more pairs (3m drops?

We have an Edwardian semi and we didn't replace the original sash windows with double glazing (single glazed) but we spent money on thick wadded curtains and blinds.
And wool carpet with wool felt (not foam)underlay upstairs.
And I'm sorry to say we got an aga.
Still cheaper than new double glazed sashes throughout.
You can also buy salvage sashes and cut them to fit, one of our downstairs windows was obviously repurposed. 23 years later it is still fine
Draughts are important to prevent damp.
Unused chimney breasts get damp ..try and ventilate or better still install stoves.
Plant wood for coppicing/firewood

We also saved money by using ordinary curtain track on battens rather than proper curtain poles to start with, these can be very expensive, but you do need something to hang curtains from (Edwardian windows tend to be v bright and sunny ..not good first thing in morning)
My central heating pipe runs above tiles in the hall, along skirting, v short run, otherwise it is concealed under our (pine) floorboards in all the rooms.

Thanks all :)

Only electric heaters and fires. No actual radiators so all needs to be new piping. Obviously need a stove in most rooms too. We both garden as a profession so wood source is not a problem for us :)

I think we will have to do what you have nettleskeins to bridge the middle of the house. Not all rooms genetics but they are all original so I want to keep as much as possible undisturbed. There are two rooms which I cannot touch the floor (hall tiling and a polished parquet in one of the receptions - looks like a ballroom!). There is a more 'everyday' parquet in an another reception room but this looks like it could do with being refurbished so could potentially find a specialist to lift part and relay.

I definitely want to keep the original windows. If we cant get slimline double glazing installed into the existing then single frame it is! I will have to buy a sewing machine and set up a sewing room :)

Very happy with our secondary glazing - cant be seen at all externally so retains period appearance of the house and internally bars totally align and frame is behind the curtains. Better insulation and sound proofing that double glazing and cheap. However the cost of restoring the original windows will be high unless you are doing it yourself. Good luck.

DH’s aunt lives in an absolutely beautiful Edwardian house. She bought it 40 years ago and had the money to restore and upgrade it over the years. She is 96 now and still is as proud of it as the day she bought it! The fireplaces are particularly fabulous!!

I'm going to lower the time somewhat. Acquaint yourself with something I believe is known amongst some trades people as 'wanker tax' ..the extra they add on to the quote/bill.

Charming Glad I don’t know (nor have ever dealt with) any tradespeople who regard their clients as “wankers”. I suggest you avoid any such people and work with professionals.

Also, I hope you have enough money to do this house justice OP. Please, no twee furnishings or PVC windows!

Thinking of furniture, if you are willing to do the restoration work you will find there are some absolute bargains out there. DH buys up such furniture for upcycling projects. Under £30 for a solid mahogany drop leaf dining table is typical.

I'm sure you've thought about woodworm...

Auctions are you friend for furniture. Go and look, leave a bid, and hope. There are also pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap antiques places - I don't where you are but there's a big one at Ixworth in Suffolk. Big dark furniture is insanely cheap at the moment, and has been for a long time: you couldn't buy the raw wood for the money (if you could even get the wood at all). Nobody wants big stuff due to small rooms, and dark isn't trendy.

Ask around locally for tradesmen, and look for vans outside similar houses.

It's really rewarding to bring a house back to life. We've done it twice and are prepared to do it a third time.

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman Did you have dark panels or dark wood doors at all? Or did you pain them?

A poster showed me the French chic paint - there is a forum on facebook, French chic colour lovers. Wonders have been done with Ikea furniture and auction finds!

I've just sold my listed II building as the roof and windows needed doing, if you can make the envelope of the building watertight everything else will be able to wait.

@NewHouseNewMe, only dark furniture. But we did have one wall made of wide, dark, horizontal planks. We used a white wax on that to make lighter while still letting grain show. Looks fab. Has a witch mark on it.

Ooo a witch mark! Had to google those. How spooky lol

We are not millionaires dingdong but promise we will take our time to do it right and we are obviously not having UPVC

I love restoring furniture! So that will definitely be on the list. We have a dark wood fire surround in one of the rooms which looks so perfectly patinaed that I dont think we can justify touching that. So a few bits of dark furniture may work well in that room and the rest we can paint potentially.

I am very jealous of a witch mark, @GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman I had to Google too!!

I will probably paint all our dark wood too as it does darken the rooms considerably but I feel bad doing so!

Ooo @NewHouseNewMe

Are you embarking on this journey too?

Please feel free to post any updates or pics etc.

@NewHouseNewMe

Hi *@Geneticsbunny* -which forums would you recommend?

I also recommend Heritage House. They did us a report on our late 1920s house, their advice was pretty much completely the opposite of that of the 'damp experts' we had do a report when we bought the house. Heritage House's surveyor was right about everything, even things he suggested might be the case but we only uncovered after he had done his report, and the 'experts' (who said we needed tanking and all sorts of invasive work) were wrong. Had we followed their advice we would have spent thousands fixing problems that didn't exist, and would have made the damp problem a lot worse- possibly even damaging the structure of the building. For far less outlay, and no invasive work at all, the house is now so dry I have to use eyedrops, and the hideous wallpaper that you could just peel off low parts of the walls by hand is now so dry we need a chisel to strip it!

@LemonSwan

Thank you all :)

Very excited. I will go on to the period property forum.

We will definitely be doing an instagram but I want to wait until we have completed before I start obviously.

Luckily we have plumbing and electricians in family so we are covered for those.

I am getting really excited about all the breathable paints atm.

Has anyone tried Brouns Linseed Paint?

Heritage House recommended claypaint for us for the walls, specifically, Earthborn. It's fantastic paint, I love it. Tips: lower coverage than bog standard Dulux Trade, my usual choice for modern houses, but needs fewer coats as it is very thick. More expensive than 'modern' paints, but as it needs fewer coats, so not as much as you might think. Very matt, takes light and shadows beautifully, better than any other paint I have used. Not hard wearing when it comes to bumps, rubs, and sticky fingers. Hardly smells at all when drying. But do buy tester pots and put them on the exact same walls for the test, as it takes light VERY differently to modern paints. Colour is my job, so I usually 'get it in one' if I have to decorate a room, but I had to have four tries with testers to get the right colour with claypaint in one room; north light seem to especially affect the colours.

@LemonSwan

Thanks all :)

Only electric heaters and fires. No actual radiators so all needs to be new piping. Obviously need a stove in most rooms too. We both garden as a profession so wood source is not a problem for us :)

I think we will have to do what you have nettleskeins to bridge the middle of the house. Not all rooms genetics but they are all original so I want to keep as much as possible undisturbed. There are two rooms which I cannot touch the floor (hall tiling and a polished parquet in one of the receptions - looks like a ballroom!). There is a more 'everyday' parquet in an another reception room but this looks like it could do with being refurbished so could potentially find a specialist to lift part and relay.

I definitely want to keep the original windows. If we cant get slimline double glazing installed into the existing then single frame it is! I will have to buy a sewing machine and set up a sewing room :)

You might be able to run some pipework behind skirting boards? We have really talks ones which helpfully have a gap behind them. Also you might be able to run some pipework the other side of walls and just poke through where the radiators are. I wouldn't run pipes in the walls as if they leak it will be a nightmare and there is a risk or drilling into them at some point.